Extinction Agenda

Chapter Thirteen

Louisville, Kentucky

The phone rang a few times, and just when Cole thought it was headed for voice mail, he heard a strained yet familiar voice.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Daniels. It’s Cole.”

“Oh. What a surprise,” the Nymar chemist replied in a way that registered more nervousness than surprise. “Haven’t heard from you in a while. Staying out of prison? Heh.”

“Yeah. Good one. I’m in Louisville.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. Have you found anything more on the Torva’ox?”

“I’ve been on it for months,” Daniels replied, obviously put out by the very notion that he might have been doing otherwise. “All I’ve been able to find in books or just about anywhere else are a bunch of obscure legends about energies flowing through the earth, which made me think of ley lines, which made me think of the earth’s natural electromagnetic field, which made me think of a person’s supposed soul . . .” When he said that last word, he dragged it out and stressed it as if framing it in air quotes. “All of which can be measured by several different means.”

“What sort of means?” Cole asked.

“I’ve got my theories, but none of it’s been proven yet. Every living thing gives off some sort of charge, but that’s fairly common knowledge. The brain works by sending electrical impulses to cross synapses and relay basic commands along with higher functions. That’s an extremely simplified version, but—”

“How about an even more simplified version?” Cole said sharply.

Daniels sighed and very likely gave the head shake/eye roll combo platter to the phone in his hand. “The Breaking Moon allowed the Full Bloods to draw on massive amounts of that power, whatever you want to call it. Even from where I was, I could measure a dip in the electromagnetic field as it was pulled toward those big hairy magnets.”

“With all your research into the Torva’ox,” Cole said, “how easy would it be to manipulate it?”

“Easy? We’re talking electromagnetic fields,” Daniels replied. “And theoretical ones at that. Remember, my information may be pretty conclusive in some aspects, but that doesn’t mean I know exactly what field it is. I’m just basing my hypotheses on blanks or extremely low numbers across all the measurements I took. In order to manipulate something, I’d have to know exactly what it is.”

Cole was sitting in the car parked in front of a gas station. Outside, Paige and Waggoner emerged from the building carrying hot coffee and a lunch that was still steaming from its time spent in a microwave. She was already tearing into a burrito, dropped it and immediately launched into a tirade while stooping to pick it up. Already knowing his place in the pecking order, Waggoner wasted no time in lending her a hand.

“What would you need to figure that out?” Cole asked.

Daniels sighed and let out a breath that became the sound of exasperated lips flapping against one another in a bad imitation of a speedboat motor. “First of all, I’d need some purer samples. Something that we know for certain is the real Torva’ox and not something I may think is close.”

“Got it. What else?”

“Seriously?” Daniels squeaked.

“Yes. That’s one of the reasons I’ve been asking about all of this. What else do you need?”

“I’d need a budget for some new equipment once I narrow down what I’m actually trying to measure, but all of this would still only bring me to the start of a real process.”

“How long before you get results?” Cole asked.

“There’s no way for me to—”

“We need them quickly. Waste too much time and we might as well hand over the world to the Full Bloods. The military is getting thinned out every day, and the only way for them to survive is for them to hit harder and find some way to know where the Full Bloods may be going before they get there. Unless we can help them with that, the Half Breeds will keep thinning out the human race.”

Daniels griped plenty, but he knew when to suck it up and focus on an important task. The voice that came through the digital connection now cut straight through everything else that might have bothered him. “The best possible thing you could do is to put me in touch with an expert in this field. Someone who knows enough about the Torva’ox to point me in the right direction so I can attempt to figure out what to do with that sample you collected. If you know someone like that, bring them to me. I’ll get them briefed and we can work toward solving your—”

“How about I bring you to them?”

Daniels made a noise that could have been a word being cut short or half a grunt accompanying what had to be one of his patented sour looks. “All of my equipment is here.”

“Would talking to them over the phone be enough?”

“Don’t they at least have an Internet connection?” Daniels whined.

“Probably. But I need you to drop whatever you’re doing and keep working no matter what happens. As far as the funding or equipment needs go, get what you can, borrow whatever you need, and get it done.”

“Will I be reimbursed?”

“That doesn’t matter. Humans aren’t the only ones on the line here.”

Daniels sighed. “Well, seeing as how this work could have a direct impact on the werewolf apocalypse . . .”

“Is someone seriously calling it the werewolf apocalypse?”

“Yes. Channel 7 and one of the correspondents on CNN.”

Now it was Cole’s turn to sigh. “Whatever the hell it’s being called, yes, this will have a direct effect on it. We also need anything you can make us to prep for a fight.”

“More?”

Cole went on as if he hadn’t heard the grating protest. After all the time he’d known Daniels, he had a lot of practice. “Paige’s ink, Ned’s eye drops, a whole bunch of healing serum, and as many of those Blood Blade bullets as you can make.”

“We’ll need more Blood Blades to melt for that, so you’re out of luck on that last one.”

“Considering where we’re going, maybe not. Get it ready as quickly as you can. We’ll be there soon.”

“How soon?” Daniels whined. “Who’s coming? Don’t you know I’m being watched? You guys must be attracting attention now more than ever and this is no time for me to start getting sloppy where security is concerned.”

“How’s Sally, by the way?”

Mentioning Daniels’s girlfriend always brought the Nymar’s heart rate down a few notches, and this time was no exception. “She’s good,” he sighed. “Still getting comfortable after moving in with me. It’s an ongoing process.”

“I can imagine.”